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Stocks up in morning session
By Li Zengxin (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2007-06-08 11:48
After yesterday's robust growth, Chinese stocks went through waves of short-ranged fluctuations this morning. The Shanghai Composite Index closed at 3,901.45 by noon, up 10.65 points or 0.27 percent from yesterday's closing.

Opening higher from 3,900.03, the index dived first then turned around and stumbled to the highest 3,914.34 within 40 minutes. There it reversed the trend again and slid to 3,852.05 as the lowest around the mid-session. Then it turned around again and started climbing. By the closing of the morning session, it maintained to stay above the 3,900 mark.

The Shenzhen Component Index, tracking the smaller Shenzhen Stock Exchange, closed at 12,789.67, up 93.66 points or 0.74 percent. It went through the morning session within a range from 12,580.43 to 12,798.10.

Of the A-shares, 928 went up, while 365 fell and 157 closed unchanged. Cosun was again on top of the Shanghai exchange with a 10.03 percent surge to 8.87. China Dalian International Corporation Group rose 10.04 percent as the biggest gainer in Shenzhen.

The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China slid 0.05 yuan with the largest trading volume and Chalco fell 0.81 yuan with the largest transaction value in Shanghai. TCL and Jilin Aodong ranked on top in Shenzhen, both rose, lifting the Shenzhen index higher.

Stocks in information technology, construction and timber industries led the surge. Shandong Langchao Qilusoft was sealed at the maximum increase cap of 10 percent to pioneer the information technology sector.

B shares ended mixed. Of the 109 B shares listed on the two exchanges, 78 rose and seven ended flat. Closed-end funds listed on the exchanges mostly went up.

After horizontal adjustments and a strong surge in the past two days, the stock market has started recovering from the losses in the previous week. At yesterday's closing, the total market value of all securities listed on the two exchanges was 16,844.7 billion yuan, up 1,051.4 billion yuan or 6.7 percent from that of Monday, when the stock indices had the biggest single-day drops in absolute amounts and hit the lowest points during the day after the stamp tax hike on May 29.

However, the market value was still 2,178.8 billion yuan down from that of May 29, a level where the Shanghai Composite Index was above 4,300 points. As many analysts believe there were bubbles at that level, the gap is not expected to close up very soon.

Recovering of the market has also resulted in an increase in the number of new stock accounts. The new A-share account opening on June 6 was 205,901, up from the lowest amount of 162,190 on Tuesday. Total account opening was 226,208 at the two stock exchanges, including 3,111 B-share accounts. New mutual fund accounts, however, dropped to 17,196, according to China Depository and Clearing Co Ltd.

By Wednesday, there had been 102,918,800 investment accounts in the two bourses, including 89,024,100 A-share, 2,188,900 B-share and 11,705,800 fund accounts.


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